Hi peoplesI headed out yesterday for a carp kill in a northern Victorian creek. I had 2 yabbies to take for bait and assumed I would get more there...a mistake I have made a few times now over the last month. Yabbies may not be the preferred bait by many for using carp based on the individuals perspective that the carp aren't worth using yabbies and secondly, not many people catch carp on yabbies so I have been told! But in this creek, yabbies are my 'go to' bait for carp! The creek was high with irigation flow and I could see a few carp swimming around on my arrival. Out went yabbie number one then I went about 10 metres downstream to put in my bait trap.

I looked up after setting the bait trap and say an impressive bow wave heading towards me! I thought that looks like a big carp then I realised it was attached to my line! After short battle in close 'hand to fin' combat it won the day and kept its freedom. So that was 50% of my bait gone! Out goes the last 50% of bait and it wasn't long before the second customer come along! It took a fair amount of line and got me snagged and I estimated it to be 63cms! How can I tell...cos Bender did not give up the fight til the end and measured the sucker!!!!!

My yabbie supply was exhausted so I checked my net. There was one customer in there which turned out to be the only yabbie I got there for the arvo so out it went on a size 2 wide gape circle hook. I like the circle hooks for carp. It prevents the majority of carp from being gut hooked so it is a lot quicker to remove the hook, deal with the carp and get back into fishing. This last yabbie produced a carp around the 50 cm mark. Then the wait for more yabbies to appear in the yabbie net started. With hindsight now, I know no more did appear!

I have actually started a new hobby whilst waiting for bait collection. I call it...'not fishing'! Very peaceful and relaxing and you know full well that you won't have any annoying interuptions from them finned critters! All you need is a chair and a decent rod holder!

Well, the rod holder is optional! I am thinking of starting up 'not fishing' forums as well as 'not fishing' tackle stores which will sell...alcohol! Anyway, I digress. As time went by and I became sick of 'not fishing', I decided to do a 'MacGyver' and improvise! Baited up the yabbie food I had in the bucket but yeah...nothing came to the party and had the carrot (safe to say rabbits can't swim)!

cheersTeam BenderStill floundering in the yabbie drought!

Last edited by April Fool on Mon Nov 19, 2018 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Texas wrote:There must be somewhere you can leave the bait trap, while your working.I'm assuming there's yabbies in the canals Gra

Yes there is! This is where I got my last lot from which gave me confidence (which turned out to be false) that I would get them elsewhere. When I did get them at work, I put in a fair effort and had given up...until I left the net in overnight then I scored. I haven't spent that much time at work over the last week so yabbie collecting is priority as soon as I am there for a couple days in a row.cheersTeam Claw